The precision manufacture of contoured or curved metallic structures such as guideways for magnetic levitation vehicles, bridge structures such as highway overpasses, and offshore oil rig drilling platforms is currently expensive, time consuming, and in many cases impossible to perform within the tolerances mandated by the application. Magnetic levitation vehicle guideways, for example, are required to meet stringent tolerances in their manufacture in order for the magnetic levitation vehicles to properly and safely operate over the guideways.
Magnetic levitation vehicles are capable of traveling over three (3) eighty-two (82) foot long sections of guideway in one (1) second of time, but can not operate over excess up, down, or side to side nonconformities or departures from the design contour in the guideway. To accommodate such speeds and operation, an eighty-two (82) foot section of guideway must be manufactured and assembled so that operational components can be positioned to plus or minus 0.1 mm (one-tenth of one millimeter) tolerance of the design contour across the length of the finished beam.
Current manufacturing and assembly methods are not capable of the timely and cost-effective manufacture of contoured or curved metallic structures, such as guide plates, bridge support beams, and oil rig supports, to ensure that operational components can be positioned to plus or minus 0.1 mm (one-tenth of one millimeter) tolerance of the design contour across the length of the finished structures. Current methods of manufacture and assembly are labor intensive, imprecise, and expensive. Such methods are unacceptable for the construction of magnetic levitation transportation systems.
For example, a recent proposed magnetic levitation transportation system required 650 guideway sections in 350 different configurations. Current labor intensive manufacturing methods for such a project are cost prohibitive.
In an age of budget cutbacks and cost-effective projects, a more precise, automated, inexpensive, and faster apparatus for and method of manufacture of precision structures is needed.